As Rio de Janeiro residents sheltered at home last year during the deadliest phase of Brazil’s COVID-19 outbreak, police detective Gabriel Ferrando said he got a tip that something suspicious was upending local internet service.
Access had vanished across broad swaths of Morro da Formiga, or Ant Hill, a tough neighbourhood on the city’s north side. When Ferrando quizzed a technician from broadband provider TIM SA tasked with fixing the outage, the worker, whom he declined to name, said armed men had chased him away with a warning not to return.
Turns out a new internet provider had claimed this turf: a company whose investors at one time included an accused drug and arms trafficker with alleged ties to Brazil’s notorious Red Command crime syndicate, according to Ferrando, court documents filed by authorities and business registration records viewed by Reuters. Using stolen equipment, some of it pilfered from TIM, the newcomers soon had their own internet service up and running, Ferrando said. Residents could sign up with the new firm, he said – or do without.
TIM, a unit of Telecom Italia SpA (TLIT.MI), declined to comment, referring all inquiries to Brazil’s telecom industry association Conexis. In a statement, the group called on the nation’s law enforcement to act to protect legitimate operators.
Ferrando, a veteran of Rio’s top organized crime unit, is trying to do just that. In a sealed report documenting months of investigation, he asked Rio state prosecutors in February to pursue charges against the purported pirates. The prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment. No charges have been filed.
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